Border Patrol Uniforms

Many jokes have been made in the last week or so about the fact that Border Patrol uniforms apparently are made in Mexico.  Although perhaps a delicious irony, it is not all that surprising.  Presumably (although not definitely–it is the government 🙂 ), the federal government shopped around for a good — maybe even the best — price on the uniforms.  The cost of labor generally is cheaper in Mexico than in the United States, one of the reasons for the growth of the maquiladoras in the border region.  Like many employers in the United States, the federal government as an economic actor values cheaper products through cheaper labor.   

The only surprise is that anti-Mexico/Mexican sentiment did not get in the way of the U.S. government’s purchase of the uniforms.  But, as NAFTA demonstrates, the United States supports the free trade of goods and services, if not the free migration of people, in the border region.

Tomás